Doomsday, I Mean Qualifications

The best part of the day was when they arrived. After that...

The worst of the MAG Qualification news has spread like wildfire (sympathies to my European friends who woke up to that). I did watch it live but I wasn't in a reflective mood so I just went to bed instead of writing . Basically it went like this: between seven to ten serious injuries were accrued, one thousand falls kept top contenders out of finals (no apparatus was spared), and the lighting was not fixed which may have impacted the aforementioned things in addition to possible equipment malfunctions.

The floor was torn up several times throughout men's and women's quals leading to widespread accusations that performances were compromised. Gymnasts from Korea, USA, and the Netherlands complained of dents in the floor forcing the FIG to accept Thomas Gonzales plea for a ninth spot in the final he was kicked out of. 

Regarding Russia...I'm so upset. For them. At them. Just upset with how the day went. Nikita Nagorny was set to do AA for the first time in an international meet, since 2014, but the added responsibilities took a toll on him. The stalwart stuntman could not achieve a place in any finals even though he was our -MY!- number one predicted medal contender. Artur Dalolyan also did not make it to finals but that had more to do with getting outscored than with him imploding. Obviously the coaches are upset but to make matters worse the mainstream media is shitting on them too. That's annoying because the mainstream media in Russia, like everywhere, knows zilch about gymnastics so they're venting at their poster boy who failed to deliver the prophesied medals. They don't care about why it happened or how the boys plan to fix things going forward.

My disappointment extends beyond not seeing them in finals. Frankly, I'm shocked at how much this affected me. I guess I've grown to admire and deeply respect each and every member of Team Russia since I started this blog almost two years ago. The blog forced me to watch them in a way I never did before. I had to stop blaming them for everything that went wrong because I learned how much harder it was to be a consistent threat in MAG. Even before the medals started really rolling in I enjoyed how artistic our guys were, how much passion they had for the sport, and how earnest they were to improve gymnastics public image in their country. I grieve mostly because I like them as people not just as athletes.

The other big news from men's quals was the end of King Kohei's consecutive AA domination. After Rio he planned to drop AA but how things ended in Montreal felt different. There's a difference between retiring your throne and forfeiting it.

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The controversy over vault isn't just that it ended Kohei's ambitions but that Denis Ablyazin was sidelined for younger teammates even though he was prepared to vault. The coaches had given us a cock and bull story about him still recovering from injury...which in reality is apparently all healed up ). I get that the MAG coaches are determined to develop the potential of young'uns but until the time and place where they can beat the veterans they shouldn't get special treatment. Every team spot should make sense. Fine, have a strategy, but things still need to be done by a merit system. In my last MAG post I wondered why Artur was doing floor over Lankin (not picked for Worlds) and now I'm wondering in what universe has he ever been better than Denis for the coaches to select him over a European, World, and Olympic medalist! That is no way to treat the man who's been holding down this team before all the young hot shots came along.

The bright side of MAG quals was that David Belyavskiy triumphantly returned to the All Around and is in a fine position for medals in the AA, on PB and HB. And Denis, despite everything, still qualified for the one event they let him do, SR, where he has a great chance for a medal. I really wish they would've let him vault, this could've been his year to finally attain a World title on that apparatus. My one consolation from all of this is that with every mistake a lesson is learned and Nikita seems apt to move on and concentrate on this never happening again. Furthermore, Artur, Dmitri, and Sergei will continue to improve and strengthen their programs, Nikolai and Ivan are returning in full force next year, and David and Denis are mainstays on this team so whatever couldn't be accomplished this time can be attained next time. And in even better news, Kohei has not suffered as bad an injury as initially feared. He's already off his crutches and positive he'll heal very quickly. Get better KK .

I want to wish our guys luck today in the AA. I know they can do it, please concentrate and hit those routines!

Here are the event finalist: